Press Release September 12, 2005

Deutschland in Japan 2005/2006

MobLab: Japanese-German media camp 2005

A live art & communication project with young artists from Japan and Germany (MobNauts), who develop creative ideas with mobile technology while traveling Japan in a bus. Welcome to the mobile laboratory!

2005/10/15-11/6

MobLab Committee 3-10-3-702 Motoazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0046 tel: 080-5081-9288 tel/fax: 03-5410-5908 e-mail: [email protected] Event Outline "MobLab: Japanese-German media camp 2005"

Duration: October 15 – November 6 Project website: www.moblab.org

Host Institutions: (stations of MobLab's tour across Japan, listed in the order of arrival) IAMAS Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (Ogaki) / NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] (Tokyo) / Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama) / Sendai Mediatheque (Sendai) / YCAM Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Yamaguchi) Organizer: MobLab Committee, Goethe-Institut Support: The Japan Foundation Patronage: Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan Special cooperation: IAMAS, ICC, Sendai Mediatheque, YCAM, Transmediale (Berlin)

Technical support: IAMAS Support Mobium, Yokohama Triennale

Bus passengers: MobNauts: Daisuke Ishida + Ken Furudate, exonemo (Yae Akaiwa + Kensuke Sembo), AGF (), Sven Gareis, Stefan Riekeles Driver: Yosuke Kawamura (artist, Mobium director) Production assistant: To mo n a g a Yamaguchi (MobLab)

General information: MobLab Committee www.moblab.org [email protected]

Further inquiries: Yukiko Shikata (MobLab Committee, director) 080-5081-9288 [email protected] Stefan Riekeles (coordination Moblab Berlin) +49-30-24749-761 [email protected] Tomonaga Yamaguchi (production assistant) 080-3010-7712 [email protected]

What is MobLab?

One achievement of digital and telecommunication technologies is the progressing interrelation of disciplines such as media art, sound, imagery, design or architecture. This phenomenon serves as a prerequisite for the formation of a new global culture, shaped by young artists that keenly engage in genre-crossing collaborations, and the creation of original media. As a result, new forms of expression beyond existing values are materializing autonomously, suggesting to interpret such pairs as global/local, real/virtual, creator/user or work/leisure time as contiguous matters rather than opposite qualities.

MobLab ("Mobile" + "Laboratory", also "mob" = crowd, community, etc.) is the sum of projects proposed and developed by Japanese and German artists from various fields (=MobNauts) in a bus that, equipped with an array of mobile devices, functions as an information base. The time the MobNauts spend on the road will naturally lead to various creative collaborations. The bus travels a number of host institutions throughout Japan, each of which hosts events that incorporate the bus and its passengers. At the same time, the MobNauts have the opportunity to exchange with local artists and other people. The flexibly set route allows for the spontaneous staging of events, which will be announced on the MobLab Website.

The bus is at once an intimate space in which the MobNauts spend time together, and a public space for transmitting global information. By traveling around, the MobNauts will create occasions for individuals to meet, on both real and virtual levels, and connect to different local realities each time they stop and get out of the bus. MobLab aims to be a platform for practical experimentation on publicness born out of a revolutionarily "on-the-spot" form of meeting of individuals and media, and investigation into the possibilities this public nature implies. The concept of dynamic information that interactively transforms through exchange between a variety of people has just begun to surface as a new layer of reality.

MobLab's central points 1． For about three weeks, a team of young artists ("MobNauts") from Japan and Germany travel across Japan in a bus that serves at once as a mobile laboratory, stopping over at several stations that host MobLab events.

2． Each MobNaut utilizes mobile technology to work out projects dealing with the permanent change of location. During the event period, information on each project will be added to the MobLab Website. Planned are also interactive projects enabling visitors around the world to participate via the Internet. A Web log will be established to provide latest news and facts of the journey, including whereabouts of the bus, news from the passengers, and details of events held at each station along the way. In addition, the mobility of the bus will allow the MobNauts to stage impromptu events that will be announced spontaneously.

3． Interesting collaborations are to be expected from the MobNauts, who will inspire each other while on the bus together. Exchange with local people in each visited region will further generate new ideas that will be incorporated in the MobNauts' projects.

4． Each institution that accommodates the MobNauts for several days will plan and host improvised events with local guest artists, including workshops, live performances, talk sessions and others.

5． MobLab will convert a bus that was used by Yosuke Kawamura's Mobium (www.mobium.org/) team this summer for a similar project, and Kawamura himself will actually be driving the bus. The "MobLabization" of the bus will take place in early October at IAMAS in Ogaki.

6． IAMAS has assembled a research team to work out a special information system, and above this is developing an original archive system for MobLab. During the event period, images, sounds, texts and GPS data will be collected through sensors, mobile telephones, video cameras and others, whereas the bus functions as an interface. Original MobLab documents will be created and published with the help of a mapping system and a blog site. The pool of data will not only be utilized by the MobNauts, but through storing the "open data" on the Web, MobLab will encourage future projects to reuse and expand these data.

7． While referring to a number of both past and current projects, MobLab seeks to exhibit originality in its unique form of application of mobile technology, a multilayered quality interlinking diverse elements, and a sharable system. Projects referred to by MobLab will be filed under "research" on the Website, sorted by topic.

MobLab Schedule

-early October Information system development and implementation, conversion of the bus in Ogaki

10/15 (Sat) MobNauts gathering at IAMAS

10/15 (Sat) – 10/18 (Tue) MobNaut camp

10/18 (Tue) Party at IAMAS

10/19 (Wed) Seeing-off ceremony, travel from Ogaki to Tokyo

10/20 (Thu) Setting at ICC

10/21 (Fri) ICC

10/22 (Sat) Tour around the metropolitan area

10/23 (Sun) Yokohama Triennale

10/24 (Mon) – 10/26 (Wed) Travel from Yokohama to Sendai

10/27 (Thu) Setting at Sendai Mediatheque

10/28 (Fri) – 10/30 (Sun) Sendai Mediatheque

10/31 (Mon) – 11/1 (Tue) Travel from Sendai to Kansai

11/2 (Wed) – 11/3 (Thu) Travel from Kansai to Yamaguchi

11/4 (Fri) Arrival at YCAM

11/5 (Sat) – 11/6 (Sun) YCAM

What is a MobNaut?

The MobNauts are artists from Japan and Germany who travel on a bus across the country. These protagonists form the centerpiece of MobLab, as their respective projects developed with information networks and while incorporating direct experiences with different realities and individuals unique to each station of the journey, will create a new sensibility to possible future directions for both society and urban spaces. The MobNauts are also expected to engage in unique collaborations with each other.

MobNaut Profiles, MobLab Projects

Daisuke Ishida + Ken Furudate Daisuke Ishida: Sound artist, born 1980. Member of the Sine Wave Orchestra (SWO) and the Sine Wave Quartet (SWQ). In his solo work he treats sound as a body which he bends into groovy sequences and gradations. The SWO has been showing aspiring live performances in Japan and abroad since 2003, and won the “honorary mentioned” at Prix Ars in digital music category in 2004. This participation in MobLab marks the first collaboration between SWO @ Ars Electronica. Linz 2004 Ishida and fellow SWO/SWQ member, Ken Furudate Ken Furudate: Sound artist, born 1981 in Kanagawa. Graduated from IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in 2002. Building on his concept of sound as a phenomenon that is controllable on a time axis, he has been performing live, and contributing "music as a vehicle for new forms of communication" to installations and dance pieces. Ishida (left) and Furudate (right)

Next to SWO and SWQ, Furudate is also a member of Arch and 710.beppo. He is involved in the organization of events, such as the international headphone festival "Placard Tokyo" and others. Ishida+Furudate at Moblab present “Amplified, Localize”, a series of live performances with local musicians the artists pick up during the journey. Each performance takes place inside the bus while on the road (possibly with audience). Several microphones and uncovered speakers installed in the car interior will results in acoustic feedback, which turns the bus itself into a musical instrument. The artists’ human-induced performance beating the vehicle’s body or covering microphones with their hands will be underscored by the engine noise – another factor that shapes the unique sound this “instrument” produces. During stopovers, members of the audience will be encouraged to try and play it too, while in events the MobNauts show performances on the buss.

exonemo Art unit comprised of Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa, who have been using www.exonemo.com as a stage for their creative work since 1996. The duo has earned worldwide reputation for presenting original, Web-specific experimental projects. In 2000, they expanded their range of activity, and began to channel their characteristic wit and (hackers') esprit into the creation of installation pieces, software, live performances, and others they keep showing at exhibitions and festivals in Japan and abroad. Recently creating many original devices, and alterations of existing tools through circuit bending. Photo: Daisuke Aikawa exonemo at MobLab capture sceneries seen from the window of the traveling bus on video, which they make available for visitors to download from the Internet, print out, and build their own paper buses with windows showing the captured images. Since each download cuts single sequences out of the video, even remote visitors can obtain (material) paper models of the bus (data) at any point during its journey.

Sven Gareis

VJ and media artist. Born 1970 in Karlsruhe, now living in Berlin. Has been attracting the attention of mainly European audiences with energetic displays of experimental video and interactive installations, as well as live performances. Has established the "Te le m at iqu e " moniker in 2004, under which he develops tools for the creation of live music and imagery in close connection to urban places and architecture. Next to these beautiful fusions of music an abstract visual landscapes, Gareis is programming the "audio/videojukebox", a regular installation in Berlin since 2002.

Sven Gareis at MobLab captures still images at various stations Timelapse by Sven Gareis along the bus journey (highways and other sceneries related to infrastructure and data flow in particular), and overlays them with images from European cities using two projectors. The installation transforming chaotic images into clear, rhythmically pulsating patterns is shown inside the bus and at each host institution. Promising is also the planned live performance where the artist mixes in real-time patterns of interacting visuals and sounds.

AGF (aka Antye Greie) Musician, producer, artist. Born 1969 in the former GDR, now living in Berlin. Has been active as a musician since 1990. Her 2000 release "Head Slash Bauch" (Orthlorng Musork) pursues an artistic marriage of technology and expression, and also her work with the likes of Laub, Craig Armstrong, Kaffe Matthews or Vladislav Delay on labels including Kitty Yo and Mille Plateaux, as well as her calligraphy-inspired poetry installation has received acclaim. Received the Distinction Award in the digital music category at Prix Ars Electronica 2004. Photo: Vladislav Delay

AGF at MobLab turns her impressions during the journey into a total of 99 poems (in German, English and Japanese) accompanied by sound and photographs. The poems written in her original adaptation of the calligraphy format will be displayed in rather hidden places during stopovers, or given to people the artist meets. AGF's creations will be stored and made available for viewing in the Web archive, and collaborative works with other MobNauts are to be expected as well.

Stefan Riekeles Artist, curator. Born 1976, living in Berlin. Has been working as a VJ since 2000, and studying interactive media and event media in Stuttgart in 2000–03. Is also active in the fields of photography, video and installation. Since 2002 he has been involved in the programming of Berlin's international media art festival, Transmediale, where one of his motivations is the establishment of a shared working space for artists and audience. Stefan Riekeles at MobLab presents the "Moss Garden", a project focusing on moss as a virtually unchanging element with autonomous temporal rules and ecology, in contrast to the permanent change of location and information in and around the bus. During the event period, the artist will grow moss on the bus, and unveil images, temperature data and others documenting transformations in the peculiar moss microcosm. Installations are planned at each host institution.

MobLab events at each host institution

The MobNauts travel by bus to a number of host institutions (including media centers and others) across Japan, with the aim to exchange and collaborate with organizers, local artists and other individuals they meet during the approximately three weeks. Under consideration of its own orientation, as well as local characteristic features, each host institution plans and carries out programs together with the MobLab Committee and the MobNauts.

IAMAS Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (Ogaki) Central technical operations concerning the entire MobLab project – archive system development and implementation, conversion of the bus, etc. – take place at IAMAS, where the MobNauts gather to camp before the kick-off. The Center for Media Culture (CMC) and other IAMAS venues host workshops, the MobLab pre-launch party and seeing-off ceremony, as well as the first MobLab presentation, and an event that takes place with a live Ogaki-Berlin Network connection – all involving IAMAS students and other media art-related professionals and students from the Chukyo area. An educational institution located – different from the other host venues – in the environment of a provincial town, IAMAS appeals to students across Japan and Germany to participate actively, rather than aiming to attract a large number of visitors to events at the Institute. www.iamas.ac.jp

NTT InterCommunication Centre [ICC] (Tokyo) Computer terminals will be set up inside ICC for the entire period of the MobLab project. For the MobLab event on October 21, the bus will stop at Tokyo Opera City (according to plan), and presentations summarizing the processes of the MobNauts' projects to that day, as well as talk sessions and live performances with the organizers, MobNauts, and special guests take place at the 5F lobby. On the following day, ICC is the point of departure for a tour around greater Tokyo (leading to places in central Tokyo, and the Yokohama Triennale), and the place for brainstorming about ways to utilize the contexts and structures of the metropolitan region. www.ntticc.or.jp

Sendai Mediatheque (Sendai) Parked in the open square on the first floor of Sendai Mediatheque (smt), the MobLab bus turns into a public atelier and relay station. Visitors can follow the journey up to the arrival at Sendai, and browse through a catalog of finished works and creation processes on monitors and screens, while the MobNauts produce new works in collaboration with smt visitors. Due to the "open" nature of the square, workshops will evolve naturally on the spot. During the stay at smt, various events with live Network connections to Berlin are planned. www.smt.jp

YCAM Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Yamaguchi) The final stop on the MobLab journey, YCAM serves as a collecting point for results and summaries as presented one by one on the MobLab Website, as well as a platform for research into new prospects arising out of those. MobLab is an amalgamation of continuous processes, which involves the possibility to interlink projects and/or carry them to the next step/node. Events at YCAM will include presentations, mini live performances, workshops, discussions and others with organizers, hosts, MobNauts, and guests invited through YCAM. www.ycam.jp